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TWO"NEW"BOOKS"MARK"40TH"ANNIVERSARY"OF"CAMBODIA’S"TRAGIC"
FALL"TO"POL"POT’S"KHMER"ROUGE"
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MEDIA"REVIEW"COPIES"AVAILABLE"
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(Bangkok, April 2, 2015) – On April 17, 1975, after a lengthy civil war, the Khmer Rouge
took control of Cambodia and began implementing one of history’s bloodiest revolutions.
By the time Pol Pot’s regime was overthrown less than four years later, two million people
had died from execution, starvation, overwork and disease – one in four of the population.
This month Asia Horizons Books is publishing two books that depict this period in quite
different ways.
The Fall of Phnom Penh by French photojournalist Roland Neveu is a photographic book
that depicts his iconic black-and-white images taken in Phnom Penh as the Khmer Rouge
surrounded and then captured the capital. Neveu was one of the few photographers who
managed to smuggle his images out of Cambodia after those tumultuous days. Some are
reproduced here for the first time.
When Clouds Fell from the Sky, A Disappearance, A Daughter’s Search and Cambodia’s
First War Criminal by journalist Robert Carmichael is a non-fiction book that takes as its
centrepiece the disappearance of a young diplomat after he was recalled to Cambodia in
1977. His wife, left behind in France with their two small children, spent years trying to
learn his fate. Decades later that search brought her and the couple’s daughter face-toface with Cambodia’s first war criminal at the international tribunal in Phnom Penh.
The international tribunal’s ongoing work means that Cambodia remains a country in the
news: the 40th anniversary of the fall of Phnom Penh comes as the tribunal continues its
genocide case against the movement’s two surviving leaders, and just weeks after it
charged a further three senior Khmer Rouge officials with crimes against humanity.
For more information on both books, please see the next two pages of this press release.
For review copies, please contact the publisher in Thailand on [email protected].
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Asia Horizons Books Co., Ltd., Bangkok, Thailand – www.asiahorizons.com
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The Fall of Phnom Penh by Roland Neveu
Publisher: Asia Horizons Books Ltd
History/Photography
Hardback: ISBN 9786167277103; USD $39.50
Size: 17.5 cm x 24.5 cm
Contents: 216pp.; 9,000+ words text; 116 original
photos B&W and colour; two colour maps; CMYK
printing on 128gr art-matte paper
Publication Date: April 17, 2015
French photographer Roland Neveu was one of
the few photojournalists in Phnom Penh on April
17, 1975. His iconic images have become a
marker of a day greeted with joy by the warweary inhabitants of the Cambodian capital, yet
whose consequences would cost many of them
their lives over the next four years.!
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Neveu’s classic book, updated and with a fully
revised text, contains more than 100 images –
some reproduced here for the first time – of the
events leading up to the fall of Phnom Penh,
one of the 20th century’s seminal moments.
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QUOTE HERE FROM SOMEONE?
“For anyone familiar with Cambodia’s
horrific
Person’s
name past
here or indeed anyone who survived the
years of darkness at the hands of the Khmer Rouge, the 17th of April 1975 was the day
when the nightmare started,” says Neveu. “It marked in the people’s minds the date when
the country began its descent into hell.”
“We now know that these images represent the end of Cambodia – as it had been – for
the population and the start of something much darker, much more destructive, than
almost anything that had come before in history,” he says. “Forty years on, what stands
out for me is that this was truly a pivotal moment in history.”
About the Author
Roland Neveu is a French photojournalist who has lived in SE Asia for over 20 years.
Through much of the 1980s he worked for Time magazine and was represented by the
prestigious Gamma and Gamma-Liaison photo agency. He was one of the few reporters who
witnessed the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge in 1975. Over the next two decades he
covered conflicts in Afghanistan, El Salvador, Lebanon and the Philippines, among other places.
He has also worked as a stills photographer for Hollywood directors Oliver Stone, Ridley Scott
and Brian de Palma. Neveu’s work has been widely published.
The Fall of Phnom Penh is his fourth book. He lives in Bangkok, Thailand.
Email: [email protected]; Mobile: +668-5879-9990
Author website: www.rnbk.info
Asia Horizons Books Co., Ltd., Bangkok, Thailand – www.asiahorizons.com
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When Clouds Fell from the Sky, A Disappearance, A Daughter’s Search and
Cambodia’s First War Criminal by Robert Carmichael
Publisher: Asia Horizons Books Ltd
Current Affairs/History
Hardback: ISBN 9786167277127, USD $27.50
Size: 23.5cm x 16cm
Paperback: ISBN 9786167277134, USD $18.50
Size: 23cm x 15.5cm
Contents: 364pp., 8pp. B&W images, 2 maps
Publication Date: April 10, 2015
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The book weaves the lives of five key people –
three Cambodian and two French – across five
decades: from the rise of the Khmer Rouge in the
1960s to the international tribunal’s 2012 conviction
of the regime’s security chief, Comrade Duch, for
his role in the torture and execution of more than
12,000 people at the notorious S-21 prison.
Its central event is the disappearance of a young
diplomat on his return to Cambodia in 1977.
“Poignant … An unforgettable book.”
Elizabeth Becker, journalist and author of When the War
Was Over: Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge Revolution
“At least one in four Cambodians died when Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge remade society to
their bleak and brutal utopian vision, yet the story of the country’s darkest years is not
nearly as well known by the wider world as it ought to be,” says author Robert
Carmichael. “That lack of knowledge was central to my decision to write this book.”
“The stories of these five individuals at the heart of the book’s narrative give readers a
clear understanding of what happened and, more importantly, why it happened,” he says.
“The appalling human cost borne by survivors and relatives of the dead remains current,
and what happened to Cambodia contains vital lessons for us all.”
About the Author
Robert Carmichael is a South African journalist who has reported from Cambodia for eight years.
He spent two years as the managing editor of the Phnom Penh Post (2001-03), Cambodia’s
oldest English-language newspaper, and another six years (2009-present) reporting regularly for
numerous international outlets including the German Press Agency dpa, Voice of America, Radio
Australia, Deutsche Welle and the BBC.
When Clouds Fell from the Sky is his first book. He lives in Phnom Penh.
Email: [email protected]; Mobile: +855-12-941250
Author website: www.robertcarmichael.net
Book website: www.whencloudsfell.com
Asia Horizons Books Co., Ltd., Bangkok, Thailand – www.asiahorizons.com
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